1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method of providing information on a computer memory use. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and a method which is applicable to any computer and provides information on the computer memory use.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, many types of computer memory are known. Existing types of memory are either a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory. The volatile memory stores the contents only while supplied with (electric) power and loses the contents when the power supply is disabled, whereas the non-volatile memory stores the contents for indefinite period of time even in the absence of power. The types of memory may further be classified into recordable memory and read-only memory (ROM).
The volatile memory type is usually represented by a random-access memory (RAM). The RAM is usually re-writable, whereas the ROM is a permanent storage device. Such a difference is not very strict and certain features of ROM allow changing of the stored contents, although some problems are encountered. For instance, there are various types of the ROM such as Programmable ROM (PROM), Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), and a flash-memory.
Various types of memory have different characteristics (for example, executing readings at different times and different performance characteristics). Therefore, in many cases, it is desirable to use a combination of memories including several different types of memories in one computer system. Thus, there is a problem of intelligent use of various types of memory, namely minimization and ordering of the memory space occupied by various data, minimization of time it takes to access memory, and optimal allocation of stored data between various types of memories.
To solve the problem, it is necessary to have information on memory use. More precisely, the information regarding the size and location of data units stored in a computer memory is needed. Data units have virtual and physical memory addresses. Virtual memory addresses of data units exist only in a context of programs in which they are used and are meaningless outside these programs. Physical memory addresses are used for transfer of data units between the processor, memory and peripherals, and specify locations of data units in a computer memory. Thus, the knowledge of physical addresses of data units in a computer memory allows estimation of the size and location of the data units in memory.
The system and method of handling the physical memory are described in the U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0073742. The system and method are intended for storing data in the physical memory unit of a computer during extraction or replacement of a memory module. When the replacement or extraction of the physical memory unit of a computer is necessary, the system provides the information on the data stored in this unit, namely physical addresses of data, and copies data to a special area of memory. After replacement or addition of the memory block, the system extracts the copied data from that special area of memory and records the data in the added or substituted block.
The system and method presented above do not provide for obtaining information on the data stored in the memory, at a user's request at any moment in time, and do not allow this information to be output on a display unit of the remote computer of the user.
Another system and method of organizing a computer memory are disclosed in Russian patent RU 2182375. In RU 2182375, the flash-memory is split into separately recorded pages, and thus the information on the data stored in memory, namely the information on data structure, location or addressing of data units, is stored on one of the recorded pages, and that page can be updated whenever the information on the data stored in memory is amended.
The drawback of the system and method is that they do not allow obtaining the information on memory use for any computer, and provides only the information regarding the memory organization method. Moreover, the given system and method do not allow for a collection of information on memory use with high precision and speed. Furthermore, the system and method do not display this collection of information on display units of a computer of a remote user.